SERVIA. 



739 



which Ristich was then the head. The Ser- 

 vian Government did not accede to this eleva- 

 tion, through the opposition of Austria. Since 

 the preponderance of her influence over the 

 King and Government, the fears of Austria 

 have been removed. During the troubles with 

 Herzegovina, the Prince understood that there 

 were no objections to his assumption of the 

 royal title. The Hapsburg Government hoped 

 by this guarantee of the independence and in- 

 violability of Servia to appease the anger of the 

 Servians at the measures taken for the subju- 

 gation of the Herzegovinians, and to arrest the 

 revival of great Servian aspirations. 



Obren, from whom the reigning house of 

 Servia has its name, was a wealthy Knez, or 

 chief, of the last century, whose widow mar- 

 ried a clansman, and by whom she had a son, 

 Miloch Techo, the founder of the dynasty. 

 This young farmer distinguished himself at the 

 siege of Belgrade when the Servians, under the 

 Haiduk leader, Kara George, wreaked vengeance 

 for centuries of tyranny upon the Turks. When 

 independence was established in 1804, there fol- 

 lowed the long conflict between the Haiduks 

 and the Hospodars, or Knez. The Servians 

 are democratic by nature, and the popular party 

 won and placed its leader, Black George, at the 

 head of the state. After the reconquest by the 

 Turks in 1814, and their terrible reprisals, they 

 found a tool in Miloch, who had succeeded to 

 the estates of Obren. This Hospodar was the 

 supporter and adviser of the vizier Solyman in 

 his tyrannies, and became the possessor of un- 

 limited wealth. After wreaking vengeance on 

 his rivals, he saw the way clear for a bold 

 stroke, and, playing false to the Turks who had 

 conferred on him the opportunities for plunder 

 and made him Overknez of his district of Rond- 

 nik, he joined the combatants for liberty who 

 held the mountains, and proposed to them to 

 take the lead of the rebellion. The revolt was 

 successful with the aid of Kara George, who 

 came back from exile. Miloch betrayed the 

 former prince to the Turks, and every other 

 dangerous rival he assassinated, but the people 

 supported him as their only hope of liberty, 

 and he succeeded in making peace at last on 

 favorable terms. The position of the new 

 ruler of Servia was strengthened year by year, 

 but never defined until in 1829 he summoned 

 the Skuptchina, the Parliament which had 

 been established by Kara George in place of 

 the smaller Soviet of Turkish times, and after 

 surrounding them with soldiers made the re- 

 quest that they should swear allegiance to him 

 as hereditary Prince of Servia, and petition the 

 Sultan to recognize him in that capacity. A 

 firman came from Constantinople granting full 

 autonomy to the Servians, and commuting the 

 Turkish taxes into an annual tribute. Miloch 

 proclaimed a constitution embodying Greek and 

 Slavic customs, and declaring all Servians free 

 and equal. Each commune was obliged to pay 

 indemnities for the crimes of its members and 

 deliver up the culprit to justice. Miloch ruled 



as a capricious despot, never summoning the 

 Skuptchina, and entirely unrestrained by the 

 constitution, or by the new one which he pro- 

 duced when called to account for his tyrannies 

 by Russia. Avarice was his ruling passion, and 

 his methods of extortion were more intolerable 

 than Ottoman exactions. In 1839 the outraged 

 Servians revolted. Miloch abdicated in favor 

 of his popular oldest son, Milan. A Skuptchina 

 installed Milan and his brother Michael as joint 

 rulers with greatly restricted powers, but three 

 years later they were driven out by the adher- 

 ents of Kara Georgevitch, the son of the lib- 

 erator. In 1859 the house of Obrenovitch was 

 restored by another revolution, in the person 

 of Prince Michael, the first enlightened ruler 

 that Servia ever knew. He was succeeded by 

 his nephew, Prince Milan, now King. The 

 house of Obrenovitch was first formally recog- 

 nized by Europe as hereditary princes of Ser- 

 via in 1869. 



AREA AND POPULATION. The area of Servia 

 is 48,590 square miles. The computed popula- 

 tion on December 31, 1880, was 1,700,211, as 

 compared with 1,669,337 as returned in the 

 census of 1878. Of the latter number, 865,422 

 were males and 834,789 females. The popu- 

 lation in 1866 was divided among the differ- 

 ent nationalities in the following proportions : 

 Serbs, 1,058,189; Wallachians, 127,545; Bo- 

 hemians, 24,607; Germans, 2,589; other na- 

 tionalities, 3,256. The population belonged to 

 the Greek Catholic Church with the exception 

 of 2,049 Israelites, 6,306 Mohammedans, 4,161 

 Roman Catholics, and 463 Protestants. 



Belgrade, the capital, contained in 1878, ex- 

 clusive of the garrison, 26,970 inhabitants, and 

 about 30,000 in 1882. The next largest town 

 is Nish, with about 20,000 inhabitants. 



COMMEEOE. The principal commercial inter- 

 course is with Austria. The only other trade 

 is with Turkey and Roumania. The chief arti- 

 ticle of export is live hogs, which feed in great 

 herds on the acorns, which abound, and are 

 driven to the markets in Hungary and the ad- 

 joining parts of Austria. The extent of the 

 foreign trade for the three years last reported 

 was, in francs, as follows : 



The quantities of the leading exports in 1875 

 were as follows : 



EXPORTS. Quantities. 



Cereals (kilos) 24,961,742 



Cattle (number) 24,586 



Hogs(number) 867,643 



Sheep and goat skins (number) 1,117,184 



FINANCE. The revenue is derived mainly 

 from direct imposts, including a general poll- 

 tax. The budget for 1881-'82 places the total 

 receipts at 32,635,000 dinars (1 dinar = 1 franc), 

 derived as follows : Capitation tax, 11,600,000 

 dinars ; patents, 150,000 ; customs, 4,200,000 ; 



